Irad Ortiz making a race of it

1 Maybe jockey Irad Ortiz Jr. will make a race out of the jockey standings after all. Ortiz won three races Wednesday and now has 38 winners for the meet. He trails Javier Castellano, who had one winner Wednesday, by six wins. Castellano had six mounts Wednesday and avoided the shutout when he won the final race with Chairman Now. There are 11 days of racing left in the meet.

2 John Velazquez also had himself a day on Wednesday. He won three races to give him 30 winners on the meet. People who follow Velazquez were rewarded early in the day when he won the third race with Captain Gaughen, who went off at odds of 9-1.

3 Wednesday's seventh race was named the Peter E. Simonian Jr. Memorial. Friends and family of the late Simonian, who died last winter at the age of 84, gathered in the winner's circle after Kenzadargent won the mile race. Simonian was an area businessman who owned Petar's Club Morocco in Troy.

4 It will be a long day on Travers Day. Fourteen races have been scheduled, with the first post set for 11:35 a.m. Saturday. The Travers has a scheduled post time of 5:45 p.m. The last race of the day has a scheduled post of 6:53 p.m. Gates open on Saturday morning at 7.

5 Heart to Heart took the lead and never looked back, winning the featured Better Talk Now Stakes on Wednesday, a mile race on the inner turf. Ridden by John Velazquez and trained by Brian Lynch, Heart to Heart has won two of three career starts on the grass. He won the race by three lengths and was timed in 1 minute, 33.97 seconds.